


A Mind for Murder

by twitchbell



Category: Doctor Who, Pulaski
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-05
Updated: 2010-04-05
Packaged: 2017-10-08 17:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twitchbell/pseuds/twitchbell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan interrupt a film crew at Corby Stone Circle, and find that someone is working to a potentially lethal script of their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mind for Murder

The air trembled with the sound of low chanting. The robed and hooded figures wound their way about the crude altar in the centre of the stone circle. Their foot-falls were soft, the folds of their red robes swirling in the light breeze, the colour bright as blood against the grey sky. Some held their pale hands upraised before their faces, clasping flaring torches of pitch and rags that reflected the cold, implacable flame of purpose in their eyes. Slowly their voices gained in strength and resonance as they circled closer.

At their heart, upon the altar, lay the bound figure of a man. There was a bruise on his forehead, half-hidden under the rumpled brown hair. He groaned as the chanting neared a crescendo and his eyes flickered open. Dazedly, he shook his head as if to clear it, then struggled against the chains that fettered him. To no avail.

Then the chanting ceased. The figures halted. One of them threw back the hood and stood revealed as a young woman, her blonde hair belling round her shoulders. And he knew her, tried to call her name, but no recognition showed on her features. Her eyes glittered in the torch-light as she drew a gleaming dagger from the folds of her robe.

"And now you will die, unbeliever!" she cried. "No longer will you mock the power of the Stones!"

She raised the blade and held it poised above the heart of her victim... 

"No!"

A slender girl darted forward from the shadows of one of the stones, her eyes wide with distress, her dark, curly hair tumbling over her shoulders. She looked round wildly.

"Doctor! Stop them!"

"Cut, cut, cut!" a voice screamed. A tall man with a shock of white hair flung the file he held to the ground and clutched his head with despair.

The woman with the dagger raised her eyes heavenwards. "Where on earth did she come from?"

"Who cares?" drawled her intended sacrifice, eyeing the newcomer appreciatively. "With legs like that she can come rescue me any day."

"Nyssa..." The Doctor, closely followed by Tegan, stepped forward from the shadows. He twiddled his hat between his hands, looking highly embarrassed.

"Doctor, we have to do something," Nyssa pleaded, a catch in her voice.

"Nyssa, they're making a film," Tegan explained. "We tried to tell you, but you dashed off." She gestured round at the cameras, sound and lighting equipment. "See?"

"Recording their victim's dying moments?" Nyssa looked horrified.

"No, no, of course not," the Doctor said quickly.

"They sure as hell better not try it," came the voice from the altar.

"Oh I don't know," the blonde said. "I think this show could do with some added realism - and I could murder you with _such_ conviction," she added sweetly, then turned to the white-haired man. "Are we going again?"

"We're going again," he confirmed wearily, coming forward and silencing the crew with a ferocious scowl. He turned on the Doctor and his companions, adding sarcastically, "That is, providing you have no objections?"

The Doctor smiled ingenuously. "Of course not, do go ahead. I must apologise for my young friend's outburst; she's been under some strain lately."

"Oh really? Well it may interest you to know that I'm already four days behind schedule, thanks to the bloody weather, and..." He controlled himself with an effort. "Just stay back and keep quiet. All right people, places please. Let's try and get it right this time."

The Doctor drew Nyssa and Tegan to one side, well away from the centre of the action. Nyssa's cheeks were flushed.

"I feel very foolish, Doctor. It's obvious now that this is not what I thought, but I felt so sure back there that something evil was about to -"

"I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about it." A woman's voice, low and faintly amused, sounded behind them. "Jeff - the director - isn't one to hold a grudge." They turned.

The woman facing them was tall and slender, her eyes wide and expressive, her dark hair drawn back from the pale oval of her face.  When she moved towards them, she limped slightly. "I'm Constance Corby," she introduced herself with a smile.

The Doctor returned the smile, holding out a hand. "Delighted to meet you. I'm the Doctor, and this is Nyssa, and Tegan."

"Are you one of the cast?" Tegan asked curiously. "What are you filming, anyway?"  


"You mean you didn't recognise our stars?" Constance chuckled. "They will be hurt. We're making 'Pulaski'."

"Ah," said the Doctor blankly, looking at Tegan, who shrugged. 

"Must be after my time, Doctor."

"You mean you've never heard of it?" Constance blinked in obvious surprise. "I didn't think it was possible to avoid it."

"We've been - ah - out of the country for quite some time," the Doctor explained. 

"What's it about?" Tegan asked. "Sword and Sorcery? Black Magic?"

"Oh no, it's a Private Eye series. This is a one-off, something a little different for a Hallowe'en special. Luckily for me. You see, I penned the script and I'm not too good at writing tales about spies, bullion robberies and drug-pushers, which is what they usually favour."

"Have you any idea how much longer they're likely to be filming?" the Doctor asked. "Only the most direct way to our transport takes us rather close to the action, as it were, and under the circumstances I feel we'd better stay put until they've finished."

"Ah yes." Constance Corby smiled. "Jeff doesn't hold grudges, but he can be a little temperamental - if not quite so much as Larry. That's Larry Summers, the one playing at sacrificial victim," she added, noting that they all looked none the wiser. "He plays Pulaski, the private eye. The blonde wielding the knife is his co-star Kate Smith, who plays Briggsy. As for how much longer they'll be..." she shrugged. "I've quickly learnt that the length of a scene and the time it takes to film it don't necessarily correlate at all."

"You're a newcomer to this business?" the Doctor queried.

"Indeed. Until two years ago I was a model with my eye on a career in acting. A car accident put paid to that - for the time being. So I find myself writing scripts instead of acting them."

"It's fortunate that you had that talent to rely on."

"Some would say so." Her eyes were bleak, "but I still find it very hard to come to terms with." She waved away the Doctor's awkward murmur of sympathy. "I used to love dancing, sport, and now..." She rallied. "Ah well, the doctors said I'd never walk again. I proved them wrong in that so maybe one day I'll dance again too. I happen to believe that there's very little the will can't accomplish, if you know how to use it."

"Mind over matter? Of course..." The Doctor turned sharply at sounds of a fresh commotion.

"Now what?" Tegan wondered out loud.

"Let's see, shall we?" The Doctor strode forward. Nyssa and Tegan followed.

"Fools! The lot of you!"

The speaker was female, old, with a fragile, brittle look to her belied by the fierce intensity of her voice. Her grey hair blew loose in the wind and she wrapped an old cardigan round her, staring around at her audience wildly. Some sort of tramp, Tegan thought, eyeing the lone, defiant figure.

"You'll stir it all up again with your play-acting!" the woman cried. "The Stones have a power all their own - there's been murder in this place before to tap what lies here. Only fools meddle with what they know nothing of!"

"Get the hell off my set, you crazy old woman!" Jeff yelled. "For the love of God, someone get her out of here!"

"Jesus! I just don't believe this." Larry, shifting uncomfortably on the altar stone, looked and sounded decidedly irritable. The old woman swung round on him.

"So you don't believe," she said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "He didn't either and now he's gone. There was blood on the stone and will be again unless you take heed and go!"

"I don't have to listen to all this crap," Larry said in disgust. "You wanna preach about hell-fire, you go do it some place else, lady."

"Closed mind!" she spat back, "No sensitivity! You may plead ignorance and I will say it is no defence, for you were warned. All of you!" She swung round, trembling. "These Stones have stood since the dawn of time, thousands of years of power lying waiting, and you would raise it up again!"

"Get that bloody woman out of here!" Jeff shrieked. Several of the crew came forward, finally, but paused as lightning arced above the stone circle, a vivid flash against the grey backdrop, and thunder sounded low and menacing. They glanced up as the first heavy drops of rain started to fall. The old woman cackled suddenly.

"The skies cry out. They know. They know!" She scurried between the stones with a swiftness that seemed to contradict her age.

"Leave her!" Jeff yelled. "Get this stuff packed away before the rain gets worse. That's a wrap for today. By the time this clears, it'll be dark. Jesus, what a day..."

"Well, what do you make of that, then?" the Doctor murmured softly, stepping back as everyone rushed to obey the director.

Constance Corby came forward as the Doctor spoke. Although she'd followed them, she'd kept her distance. Now she shuddered.

"I find mental instability very disturbing," she said. "Forgive me if I sound uncharitable." She gave a faint smile. "I must say, though, that the weather seems to be conspiring on her side. After all, if there's no more filming then nothing can be 'raised-up' today, can it?"

"Will they be filming here again tomorrow?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh yes, they'll be a good few days yet, the way things are going. And now you must excuse me. I must be getting back home."

"Of course," the Doctor nodded. "Do you have far to go?"

"Not far at all. I lived at Corby House, just a few minutes walk away. As a matter of interest, these Stones stand on Corby land. Technically I own them. I've grown up with them so I suppose it's small wonder that they found their way into my script. I agreed to let them film here. I can't see any harm in it, at least. Oh yes, I know the superstitions attached to this circle, at least as well as she does, I fancy, but that hardly makes the place unique. A number of places boast similar legends, after all."

"Yes, indeed," said the Doctor thoughtfully as Constance smiled her farewells and left them.

"Well, that's that, then," said Tegan briskly. "Back to the TARDIS?" 

"For tonight anyway," the Doctor agreed. "As for tomorrow - we'll see." 

"Do you really think the filming will do any harm?" Nyssa asked.

"I don't know," said the Doctor thoughtfully, "But it might be wise to check it out, while we're on the spot as it were. Something about this place deeply disturbed that woman." And Nyssa, too, he remembered, had sensed something evil.

"Doctor, she was probably the local lunatic!" Tegan remonstrated impatiently. "We can't take her ramblings seriously!"

Nyssa smiled. "The Doctor can," she said.

 

Tegan stepped out of the TARDIS and snuffed the morning air experimentally. At least it wasn't raining. Yet. She glanced up the green mound of the hill to where the Stones stood, like a circle of jagged, broken teeth, and suppressed a shiver. Chiding herself for being superstitious, she turned as the Doctor and Nyssa stepped outside to join her.

"Now what?" she asked.

The Doctor pointed. "Aha! Signs of life." Tiny figures bearing equipment could just be made out toiling up the hill. "Nyssa, I want you to go up there - find Constance Corby to keep you company if you like."

"What am I to do there?"

"Observe. Put logic aside, Nyssa, and trust your instincts. If it feels wrong then try and stop it, by whatever means you can. Meanwhile Tegan, you and I are going down to the village to talk to the old lady."

"Doctor, we don't even know her name, let alone where she lives!" Tegan protested. 

"Well, I should say she's a person who'd stand out in a small community, wouldn't you? I don't think we'll have much problem putting a name to her or finding out where she lives. Come on." He set off at a brisk walk.

Tegan sighed and turned to Nyssa.

"I can't help feeling that you're getting the better deal out of this," she muttered. "Have fun."

 

Filming was an amazingly tedious and long-drawn out affair, Nyssa decided.

She cradled the polystyrene cup of hot liquid in her hands and reflected that it was all very well for the Doctor to tell her to cast logic aside and rely on instinct.  Instinct and logic were in accord at present in telling her that she would be best advised to get in out of the miserable weather. All she felt was cold and damp. It had been drizzling intermittently but that, apparently, wasn't going to show up on film so they were continuing to roll the cameras. Tempers on every side were getting a little frayed, something which Nyssa didn't wonder at in the least. Constance Corby was amiable enough company but when the conversation faltered - which it did frequently because there was such a lot Nyssa couldn't talk about - she did have a tendency to mentally drift away, her eyes straying to the filming.

Constance had said that this particular scene was part of a dream sequence and had launched into a detailed explanation of the plot, most of which was lost on Nyssa who had no idea of the characters or the conventions involved. It had been somewhat easier to follow the background information Constance supplied on the actors and Nyssa had been quite startled to hear that Larry Summers and Kate Smith were husband and wife. The impression she'd formed that morning of their relationship was one far removed from marital bliss. When she'd ventured as much to Constance, the woman had smiled.

"That's true enough. Whatever love and affection there once was there doesn't look to have stood the test of time very well. He has a something of a reputation, over fond of female company, that sort of thing." But Constance had sounded indulgent rather than condemnatory and, Nyssa noted, her eyes did seem to linger longer and more affectionately on the actor than she would have expected. Nyssa didn't find it too difficult to comprehend, for Larry had undeniable charm - when he wasn't complaining about the weather, the director or the fact that the English couldn't make coffee to save their lives. She did wish, however, that he'd be a little more circumspect; she simply wasn't accustomed to having her legs the subject of such frank appraisal.

She drained the liquid - if this was supposed to be coffee, then Larry had a point; it was nothing like the beverage produced by the TARDIS - and sighed. Tegan had been quite wrong. This was no fun at all.

 

The cottage was set well-back at the end of a tiny lane, rather less tumble-down than they had expected. The Doctor opened the gate and looked at Tegan.

"Come on. Let's see if Miss Morrell is at home."

"What makes you think that she'll want to see us anyway?" Tegan argued, but followed him anyway.

There was no bell. The Doctor rapped on the door and waited. Long moments passed and then the door drew back slowly on its hinges and a pair of bright eyes, half hidden under a mop of shaggy grey hair, peered out at them, wary as an animal.

The Doctor doffed his hat. "Miss Morrell? I wonder if we might have a word with you?" He waited for a response of some sort. When one failed to materialise, he continued, "I heard what you said the other day at the Stones and I -"

The eyes flickered - with fear? Anger? - and her hands gripped the door as if to slam it in their faces. The Doctor caught hold of it.

"Please," he said gently. "Don't misunderstand me. I've not come to mock or threaten you. I simply want to know what it is you fear - and how it might be averted."

Silence. Tegan watched the old woman's expression alter and thought, after all, she'd let them in. But she didn't. Instead she came out into the garden, watching them closely. Unexpectedly, she grinned. A long bony finger jabbed towards the Doctor.

"They think I'm crazy, don't want to listen, that's their trouble. Don't like things that don't fit into their ordered, logical view of the world. But some of us know better..." She broke off, turning and looking eastwards - towards the Corby Stones, the Doctor realised. "They didn't ought to meddle with what they don't understand... stirring it all up again."

"Stirring what all up again?" Tegan asked.

"There's ways of tapping the power.  It waits for those who know how to claim and have the will ...or maybe for fools who'll let it loose by play-acting!" The scorn in her voices was unmistakable."They play at sacrifice, spill their pretend blood. Blood and stone. Stone and blood."

In spite of herself, Tegan shivered as the old woman's voice took on a sepulchral tone, almost as if she was attempting to echo the brooding power of which she spoke. "It's been loosed before, though there's not many now who'd admit it.  There was blood on the Stone, a death, a miracle - a child where there shouldn't have been. I had a lover once. It was warm that Eastertide but there was no resurrection...." Her voice faded to a mumble.

"She's rambling, Doctor," Tegan murmured softly. "We're wasting our time. Any 'danger' is all in her mind."

The woman's eyes sparked before the Doctor had chance to answer. She drew herself up, looking straight at Tegan, and there was no trace of confusion about her now. "You think I'm crazy - you? Who've known power wakened in yourself? All in the mind! You know better than most what lurks there, the power there is in the will. And devils loosed are not so easy chained, are they?"

Tegan paled, swallowed hard and drew closer to the Doctor. "Doctor, she can't... the Mara...I mean she -"

"It's all right, Tegan." The Doctor calmed her and turned to the old lady. "Thank you for your help. I think it best we go now." He led Tegan swiftly down the path, through the gate and outside. She was trembling slightly.

"Doctor, she knew ...about ...about the Mara.  How can she know that?"

The Doctor was thoughtful. "Some people do have a knack of seeing things others can't. Psychics, your world calls them. And if she can sense that about you then maybe, just maybe, everything else she senses has a basis in truth as well."

"So what do we do now?"

"I don't think we'll get any more out of her at the moment. I want to see a copy of that script, and talk to Constance Corby. She knows this place, after all. We have to find out where, and how, any power could possibly be loosed. Come on."

 

Nyssa greeted their return with relief, coming part way down the hill to meet them. 

"Anything happening?" The Doctor's eyes slid past her to the hill-top.

Nyssa shrugged and looked up at the sky. "They say it's raining too heavily to continue and that as it's set in for the day - again - they've called a stop to the filming."

"Where's Constance Corby?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know. She left about half an hour ago. She doesn't like the rain. She didn't say where she was going."

"Pity," the Doctor sighed. "I'd hoped to talk to her. Never mind, let's see who's left that we can persuade to part with a script."

Tegan explained briefly to Nyssa what had gone on at the cottage as they trudged back to the top of the hill. Not many people were still there. The Doctor looked round, spotted director and star engaged in heated conversation and set off purposefully towards them. Jeff stalked off as the Doctor neared, yelling at someone who'd just dropped an item of equipment. Larry had a smug look on his face as he turned away. No need to ask who'd got the better of that argument, the Doctor felt.  No need either to think overlong about who'd be in the best mood to grant his request. He drew to a halt before Larry and smiled.

"Excuse me, I wonder if I could borrow your script?" He indicated the file under the actor's arm. "Just for an hour or two."

"You want to borrow my script? What the hell for?"

The Doctor sighed. He might have known it wouldn't be that easy. "That's a little hard to explain," he temporised.

"I got a spare hour or so," Larry said, unmoved.

"I -er- want to read through the story and, well, check it out."

"For what? Spelling errors?" Larry was grinning. 

The Doctor looked less amused. "Not exactly," he persisted doggedly. "I just want to be sure that nothing that's going to be filmed here is likely to be dangerous to anyone."

"Dangerous? There's nothing dangerous about ...hey, wait a minute!" Larry's eyes widened in exaggerated comprehension. "Would we be talking danger as in the-stones-have-power and all that crap?"

"Well, that's one way of -"

"You been talking to the old woman, or are you some kind of crazy too?"

"I'm open-minded enough to admit that she might have some reason for thinking as she does."

"Open-minded, huh? Well, my mind's staying firmly closed. And so's the script. And now if you'll excuse me..."

The Doctor ignored this dismissal and stood his ground. "Supposing I said that you could all be in danger?"

"Oh yeah, that's right ...from the stones. Let me guess - they're gonna start walking around, creeping up on us and -"

"Stranger things have been known," the Doctor cut in sharply. "But I don't think we're dealing with the Ogri here. I wish I did know what we're dealing with - and I might come closer to understanding if I could see your script. Please." There was a compelling earnestness to his voice, which managed to combine minimum offensiveness with maximum determination. He held out his hand. "I promise to return it."

Larry eyed him for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. You want the script, you get the script. Only I'm kinda sentimental - I don't like to be parted from it."

The Doctor blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You go ahead - read it." Larry handed the file over. "But I'll just stick with you while you check it over.  You got me curious here - no, really. I wanna know what it's all about."

The Doctor smiled. "Thank you." So Larry thought he'd called his bluff, did he? "Let's go, then."

"Go?" Larry frowned. "Go where?"

"To visit Miss Morrell," said the Doctor calmly. "She's the lady who interrupted your filming the other day. I want her to check the script over."

Larry stared. "You are crazy."

The Doctor smiled. "And you're curious. And you have an hour or two to spare. So why are wasting time standing round here? Let's go."

 

Larry's decision to accompany them did have certain fringe benefits. For instance, it meant that they could arrive at Miss Morrell's cottage in style on four wheels, rather than on aching, sore feet. Tegan felt the worth of this in particular. The cottage was only about two miles from the Stones but it felt a damn sight further than that on foot.

There was no sign of Miss Morrell outside the cottage as they got out of the car. The Doctor prised back the gate and strode determinedly up the path, rapping on the door.

"I think," he said, "that you'd better let me talk to her."

"Why's that?" Larry asked, all innocence. "You figure I'm going to hassle the old... lady?"

"Well, you didn't exactly endear yourself to her yesterday," the Doctor pointed out with some justification. "Maybe -"

The door opened. The Doctor turned and smiled. "I'm sorry to -"

"Back again." Miss Morrell didn't sound particularly hostile or afraid. She flickered her eyes over the four of them but, apart from a slight narrowing of the eyes when she saw Larry, she showed no agitation.

"May we come in?" the Doctor asked. "I hope this isn't too much of an imposition but I have something here I'd like you to take a look at."

She cackled unexpectedly and threw Larry a malicious look. "You mean your _star_ here?"

"Ah,no ...a script. The one that's being filmed at Corby Circle." The Doctor watched her closely as she snatched it from his outstretched hands, then held it gingerly as if it could burn her. He caught the muttered hiss "Stones...." as they all followed her into the overcrowded living room. It was crammed wall-to-wall with books, spilling off the shelves and tables. The Doctor picked one up from the sofa, glanced at the title- "Magic: Ritual &amp; Power" - and raised his eyebrows. He put it on top of a pile already precariously balanced on top of a side table and then sat down opposite Miss Morrell. She was hunched over the script like a grey squirrel, her eyes gleaming.

"It ain't all to do with Corby Circle," Larry said, "Just the dream sequences are set here - and the end."

"Oh yes, the end always comes here..." she whispered but let him find the relevant pages, watching him suspiciously. She frowned, suddenly hostile. "Why did you come? You don't believe any of it ...you don't care."

"Hey, lady, just 'cause I don't go in for all that psychic garbage doesn't mean I don't care. The Doc here figures you for something more than just a...well, he figures you might have something. Me, I don't know. I'm here for the ride and because I'm curious. You give me some proof -"

"Proof!" she hissed and then trembled a little. "My Tom, he wanted that too. Wouldn't listen when I warned him what Alice was, what she'd do..." Her eyes gleamed. "He got his proof in the end. Pray to any Gods you own that you don't ever find proof that way too."

Larry sighed. "Just read the script, will you? I ain't got all day."

Nyssa and Tegan exchanged glances. Larry's modus operandi was far removed from the Doctor's softly-softly approach. Oddly enough Miss Morrell didn't seem to resent him for it. She began to read, pausing only to throw him one of those disconcertingly shrewd glances. Tegan, who'd been on the receiving end of such a glance, couldn't imagine how Larry faced it unmoved, but he did.

They waited as she read, watching how her hands trembled slightly as she turned the pages. The room seemed suddenly overlaid with an air of tension.

"There's knowledge here." Her words came out in a soft hiss, as if she'd been holding her breath. "Dangerous, stupid to write it all down like this. A powder keg. All you need is a fuse." Her eyes were suddenly full of tears. "Poor Tom's a-cold... dead as a dodo."

"Yeah, very interesting." Larry pulled the script away from her unresisting hands, rather more gently than Nyssa or Tegan would have expected. He looked across at the Doctor. "That help your investigations any?"

"Not exactly. But it certainly doesn't do anything to lessen my misgivings either." The Doctor steepled his hands, looking thoughtful. Miss Morrell seemed to have withdrawn into herself, sitting hunched and brooding.

"She okay?" Larry asked.

"I think so. Don't worry, I'll take care of her."

"You're the doctor." Larry glanced at his watch and stood up. "Well, it's been nice meeting you and all that -" He flashed a grin at Nyssa "- but I gotta go. You'll be around tomorrow?" This last was addressed at the Doctor.

"I expect so."

"Great. We'll talk some more then. Can't stop - Kate's expecting me." 

"Where is she?" the Doctor asked on impulse.

"With Connie - said they had some changes to chew over. I'm meeting them at the house."

The Doctor sighed. "Well, enjoy yourselves. And, I know you think I'm making a fuss over nothing, but please - keep an eye on them both."

"Relax," said Larry soothingly. "Anything happen, I can handle it." He breezed out, script tucked under one arm.

There was silence after he left. The Doctor stood up, thrust his hands deep in his pockets and began prowling the room.

"We're getting nowhere fast," Tegan said. "It's like trying to do a jigsaw when half the pieces are missing."

"We're blundering blindly in the dark," the Doctor muttered. "And it's not a feeling I like..." He spun around as the door to the living room slammed open.

A young woman stood there with an expression to match the flaming mane of red hair that curled down over her shoulders.

"Who the hell are you?" she snapped, adding "What are you doing here?" before the Doctor could frame an answer. Then her eyes fell on the hunched figure of Miss Morrell and she crossed swiftly to her, her eyes flaring accusations at the Doctor, and Nyssa and Tegan. "What in God's name have you done to her?"

"We asked her some questions," the Doctor said. "We didn't intend -"

"Oh didn't you? You barge in here, scaring her half to death by the look of it... Get out before I call the police." There was a dangerous glint in her eyes. The Doctor held up his hands and tried to soothe her.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but -"

"I'm Jennie Morrell, her niece - I think that gives me right to be here. More to the point, what about you?"

"Your Aunt invited us in," the Doctor explained steadily. "We needed to know about Corby Circle and -"

"Corby Circle?" the woman repeated. She looked down at the hunched figure in the chair and placed one hand protectively over the greying curls. "Now I understand why she's like this."

"We need to know all we can about Corby Circle," the Doctor repeated. "Maybe you -"

"She's not crazy, you know."

"I never said she was," the Doctor returned gently. "Although that was the impression she gave when she interrupted the filming at the Stones the other day."

"Filming? They're filming there?" Jennie Morrell hesitated, then, "Look, can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"They've finished filming there for today, Doctor," Nyssa said, "So surely nothing is likely to happen now."

Miss Morrell stirred suddenly, clutching at her niece's arm. "Stop them ...don't let it happen again.  Tom's cold and dead ...no more death."

"No, no more death," Jennie said softly. "It'll be all right." Her voice was reassuring but her eyes were troubled. She bit her lip and looked up at the Doctor. "On second thoughts, I think maybe we'd better talk about this now - but not in front of my Aunt. Can you help me lie her down? I'll give her a sedative." She met their looks of query levelly. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'm a doctor."

"Then that makes two of us," said the Doctor with one of his warmest smiles. "Your medical bag ...?"

"In the car outside. The door's unlocked."

"Nyssa, would you fetch it, please?" the Doctor asked as he went to help Jennie lift her Aunt.

"Of course." Nyssa rose and followed them out of the room. Tegan was left with nothing to do but wait impatiently, twiddling her thumbs. Maybe - at last - they were going to get some answers instead of information which only threw up further questions. She turned quickly as the three returned. Jennie seemed much less antagonistic. Tegan guessed that the Doctor had been taking pains to win her over. "I do apologise if our visit caused her any distress," he was saying.

Jennie sighed. "The truth of it is she's distressed already; I doubt you've made matters any worse. She does get like this from time to time anyway. Her mind is ...well, I wouldn't call her insane but she's not stable, although she can be very lucid and determined."

"You didn't know anything about the filming at Corby Circle, then, or that your Aunt had interrupted it?" Nyssa asked.

Jennie shook her head. "So she walked there and back, did she? I find that hard... no," she sighed. "No, I don't find it hard to believe. When it comes to that place she's not only very determined, she's obsessive."

"She was very concerned," the Doctor said. "Something about old powers being stirred up and misused." He tapped the pile of books nearest to him. "Your Aunt sets great store by such thinking, I gather."

"My Aunt believes, as I do, that there's more to this world than meets the naked eye.We don't know everything, not by a long chalk, not even how our own minds function. If that sounds cranky -" she was defensive "- then that's what we are - a pair of cranks."

"It sounds an eminently sensible approach to life to me," the Doctor said quietly. "An open mind is worth cultivating, providing you don't allow it to become merely credulous."

"I realise that - and so did, _does_, my Aunt." 

"Who's Tom?" Tegan asked.

Jennie hesitated. "He was to have married my Aunt. He was found murdered shortly before the wedding - at Corby Circle."

"That's awful." Tegan shuddered, "No wonder..." she turned to the Doctor. "But that's it, don't you see? Everything she's said, all those things she fears, it must be because of what happened to Tom. There's nothing terrible about to happen now; it's just her memories of the past."

"Maybe." The Doctor didn't sound convinced. He looked at Jennie. "Tell me, how did Tom die?"

"His throat was cut," Jennie said. "They never found the murderer." 

The Doctor's eyes were thoughtful.  "Murder ...or sacrifice?"

"My Aunt believed it was the latter. Corby Circle's always had an unhealthy reputation, it's been regarded as place of evil for centuries and there's been talk before of ritual killings there.  The Corby family's reputation is no better, if it comes to that."

"Really?" The Doctor frowned slightly. "Tell me, what do you know of Constance Corby?"

"Constance? I went to school with her ...not that we were friends.  She didn't really have any. As I remember she was very beautiful, even then, and very strong-willed. What Constance wanted, Constance got. Looking back I suppose I feel sorry for her," Jennie said reflectively. "She had such an odd background.  Her mother, Alice, was in her late thirties when Constance was born; no-one was expecting her to have a child at all by that time. Constance's father ran off when she was just a baby, exactly a year after Tom had been murdered. That opened up all the old enquiries again for a time - it was suggested that Tom had been having an affair with Alice."

"Is that likely, if he was betrothed to your Aunt?" Nyssa asked.

"Not impossible, according to my father," Jennie said. "Alice was very lovely and very determined. If she'd set her heart on Tom, well, he was only human. Anyway, nothing was ever proved. Constance's father never showed up, and Alice Corby was committed to a mental asylum when her daughter was fifteen years old."

"I can see why they've got a reputation," Tegan said.

"Oh this is all pretty tame stuff compared to what the earlier generations got up to," Jennie said dryly.

"Be that as it may, Constance Corby, at least, seems quite sane," Nyssa said. 

"You've met her?"

"We talked the other day," the Doctor said. "She's still a very strong-willed young lady."

"I heard about the car crash - her injury must have been a bitter blow," Jennie said. "As I remember it, Constance could never bear anything to be less than perfect, especially herself."

"Indeed..." The Doctor's gaze was abstracted. He was still frowning. He held up a hand and began to tick off points. "So ...we have Corby Circle with its evil reputation, and the Corby family with an equally sinister track record culminating in the mysterious disappearance of one and the insanity of another - which may or may not be connected with a murder at the Circle. And now we have a film crew making a drama, part of which is set around the Stones and involves ritual slaughter ...the script for which is written by Constance Corby."

Jennie stared. "_She_ wrote it?"

"And gave permission to film at the Circle, maybe even suggested it," the Doctor said.

"You suspect her of ...of what?"Nyssa asked.

"A predisposition to tap the power of the Stones, by whatever means she can," the Doctor said. "Including murder, maybe."

"But she seemed so ...well, reasonable," Tegan protested.

"And what's so unreasonable about accepting that the mind is a tool which can be used in ways most people don't even dream about, that it can draw on forces surrounding us in order to amplify its power?"

"You mean by sacrificing someone," Nyssa said.

"Or something," Jennie put in. "To sacrifice means to give up something dear to you - jewellery, an animal -"

"Or a human life." The Doctor glanced out of the window. The sun was sinking, shadows starting to encroach across the eastern sky. "What day is it? I mean, what date?"

"May 1st," said Jenny. "May Day."

"Beltane," said the Doctor quietly. "And human sacrifice was once used to mark the coming of summer." He drew a sharp breath. "We've talked long enough. It's time we went to Corby Circle - may we use your car, Jennie?"

"Of course." She moved to the door, looking back at them. "So who's at the Stones?" 

"Larry said they'd be at the house," Tegan began. "But -"

"But the house is only a few minutes walk from the Stones," the Doctor completed grimly. "Come on."

Jennie was frowning, trying to work out what was going on, as they crossed to the car. "So Summers and his wife and Constance Corby are ... you think she intends killing Kate Smith, is that it?"

"I don't see how," Tegan said. "I mean, Larry's hardly likely to stand by and let her get on with it, is he?"

"I don't see the point to it," Jennie said, opening the car door. "Not unless Constance is particularly friendly with the woman."

"I didn't see any sign of that," Nyssa said. "In fact..." She stopped. Then her eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "Doctor, it's not Kate she wants at all. When I was with Constance this morning her attention was all on -"

"Larry," said the Doctor. "Yes."

The engine roared into life as Jennie started up the car. "Well, that's more feasible," she said. "Whether Constance fancies herself madly in love or what, she could at least have created a perfectly natural bond with him.... sex," she added for the benefit of anyone not following her drift. "It would fit - he's got the reputation for playing around."

"Even so, the odds are stacked against her," Tegan argued.

"You think so?" The Doctor shook his head. "Remember, she'll have been dealing with them one at a time, and Larry has no reason not to trust her.   On the contrary, I told him to look after her, don't forget. He won't be prepared, but she will be. I don't think our determined, strong-willed lady will have left much to chance."

"Except us," said Nyssa.

 

The sun was sinking slowly down the horizon as Nyssa opened the car door and glanced upwards. The Stones loomed above her, brushed blood-red with the last colour from the dying day. Tendrils of mist curled round the hill-foot, giving it the semblance of an island - a remote, unreachable place. Nyssa clamped down firmly on her imagination and began the ascent, only dimly aware of the others following her.

It seemed very hard to move, each step requiring mental as well as physical effort.  The mind is a tool. Were Constance's thoughts somehow projecting a barrier? Nyssa concentrated her own mind and struggled on, grimly determined. Whatever doubts she might earlier have entertained had vanished now. Constance Corby's murderous impulses seemed tangible, an evil miasma, and the Circle itself resonated with raw power. Constance's will was charging it, Nyssa realised, and her intended victim's struggles would only serve to further feed the psychic vortex. As Nyssa neared the summit so she saw Larry stretched out along the altar stone, exactly as he had been the previous day when ...no. Not exactly, for he was not play-acting now but struggling in real and soundless desperation to free himself. As his head turned towards her, Nyssa saw that he was gagged. She stumbled forward the last few feet into the Circle, no clear idea in her mind what she would say or now, knowing only the imperative to stop what was about to happen:

Then Constance Corby stepped from the shadows of the Stones and pinned Nyssa's eyes with her own.

All the life and strength seemed to drain from Nyssa and she came to a ragged halt, breathing hard, scarcely aware of a crumpled figure on the ground only a few feet away from her. For a long dark moment she could see nothing but the cold clear eyes of the woman before her. Then Nyssa took a deep breath and drew on every ounce of strength she possessed.

"Let him go!" She intended it as a command, but it came out as the thin, hopeless wail of a child demanding the impossible.

"I can't." Constance Corby's voice was tinged with regret. She trailed the tip of the blade very delicately across Larry's throat. He threshed wildly under the touch. "I need him."

Nyssa felt the Doctor and Tegan reach her side and saw out of her eye corner Jennie drop to her knees beside the still figure in the grass - Kate Smith, Nyssa realised, belatedly.

Jennie glanced up at them. "A blow to the head," she said. "Concussion, nothing more..."

Tegan's gaze was firmly fixed on Constance Corby. "What gives you the right to take anyone's life?" she demanded.

"The same right the Corbys have always had!" Constance's eyes blazed. "We are accustomed to take what we want. My mother -"

"Your mother murdered a young man in order that she might have a child - you," the Doctor completed. "And what good did it do her? She became insane."

"She was weak. And I am not. After tonight I shall be as I was before my accident -"

"And what good will it do you within prison walls?" the Doctor cut in sharply. "You think I can't imagine what you've planned here? Murder, with his wife to take the blame? And you the witness, only managing to overpower her when it was too late?  It might even have worked. Only now you have four witnesses and we shall prove very hard to silence.  Now let him go."

Constance Corby turned her eyes to the sun.  "You're too late," she said softly.  "I've come too far to stop now.  I will make my sacrifice, Doctor.  You can't stop me."

"No!" Tegan took a step forward as the woman raised the knife.  The Doctor caught Tegan's arm and pulled her back.  They couldn't physically prevent Constance Corby, but there might be another way.

"Jennie!" he hissed urgently, gesturing her to join them. She was open-minded enough to participate. "Link hands," he ordered.

"But Doctor -" Tegan began.

"Just do it!" They obeyed. "The mind is a tool, remember?" the Doctor said. "Very well, then. Our minds against hers. Empty them of everything but the desire to prevent her from harming him. Think of nothing else."

The Doctor joined the circle, concentrating his own mind, knowing that the success or failure of this depended in large part on him. The power in the Circle was building; he felt it beat in every pore of him. His senses were at once everywhere yet still distinct and unique. He brushed against the minds of Nyssa and Tegan - recognisable but with unfamiliar nuances - and then Jennie's - unknown but still receptive - and meshed them in with his own.

The power built around and within them. The sun dipped lower. The Doctor stretched out the tendrils of the joint mind, then drew back sharply as the strands touched something ...something older, colder and infinitely dark.  Not just Constance Corby's mind, the Doctor realised belatedly, but the Corby heritage, all those minds long dead whose psychic malignancy lived on, now part of the powers they had raised during their lifetimes. For a moment he felt despair at the hydra-headed enemy they faced, then rallied, seeking again until he found what he was looking for. He curled a tendril round Larry's mind and tried to draw it into their embrace. Larry resisted, threshing wildly, unable at such a juncture to distinguish between friend and foe. To force him would be worse than useless, the Doctor realised. He let go of Nyssa, Tegan and Jennie, curled up his own mind and dropped it quickly and carefully into Larry's.

The Doctor broke into a light sweat as his consciousness rippled outwards; the process was both painful and disorientating. He opened his eyes and found himself staring up at Constance Corby, who watched impassively as he frantically tried to free himself, the dying light of the sun staining the blade she held...

No. Not his reality. Larry's. The Doctor collected his thoughts. He couldn't let himself be trapped that way or they'd both die. Firmly he closed his mind around Larry's, feeling it tremble like some hunted creature, and then reached out to draw the girls back to him. The four minds meshed, became as one, the Doctor holding them in rapport and channelling their thoughts with ruthless precision into the captive mind at their midst. And Larry lay trapped on both planes of existence, torn and tormented by the power that built in and around him.

Constance Corby raised the knife a hand-breadth higher. Her dark hair blew free as the wind rose, tearing away the mist that shrouded the Stones. She screamed something but the words died on the air.

Now! The Doctor drew on all their combined strength and will and hurled it into Larry. Close-linked as they were, the Doctor was wound into his pain, terror and incomprehension. And he felt, over-riding everything else, that desperate imperative for survival. He knew the precise instant when Larry reached out and instinctively grasped the only defence left to him - the one they'd supplied.

The knife flashed downwards. Larry arched, convulsed.

And Constance Corby shrieked, staring down at the blade in her own heart. The Doctor threw himself, Nyssa, Tegan and Jennie clear at the same moment, detaching them with a wrenching violence that sent them physically sprawling. The Doctor gasped for breath and, fighting off nausea, staggered to his feet. Constance Corby lay sprawled and ugly before the altar stone, her dead eyes a blank mirror for starlight. And Larry -

The Doctor's legs felt like they had lead weights attached as he stumbled forward. He'd known the risk of what they were attempting, had known the power they were unleashing - which Larry had borne the brunt of - yet they'd had no other alternative. Larry was slumped back against the stone, ominously still, his complexion waxy. The Doctor fumbled for a penknife in his pocket, severed the gag, then felt the carotid pulse. Nothing.

The Doctor drew a long breath, summoning up what strength remained to him, and slapped the lower half of the breastbone five times in rapid succession. The effect was dramatic. Larry's body shuddered violently, spectacularly back into life. He gasped, struggling for air. The Doctor held him down.

"It's all right, it's over. Lie still, get your breath back," he advised, his own voice far from steady. He felt dizzy, disorientated, only realising what was happening when he found himself looking up at his own face. Power residuals, he thought; his mind was becoming meshed with Larry's again. He tried to collect his thoughts but they skittered off in directions of their own choosing, elusive as water, almost as if some entirely perverse part of him relished -

He sank deeper, exulting in his own power and the knowledge that he had only to exert a little pressure to crush out of existence this mind he had violated. Or he could absorb the other consciousness into his own ... and not just the mind. If he chose, he could usurp the whole just as easily. Not a true regeneration, but one such as the Master -

The Master. Such as the Master had done to Tremas? The thought sobered like a drench of ice water. Suddenly he had grounds on which he could fight back. He concentrated his mind, disentangled his thoughts - making a few adjustments on the way out - then stepped back, shaking.

A place of ancient evil. It was no idle description. Once the power in this Circle may well have been neutral but if so, then generations of misuse had warped it irretrievably. It fed on darkness, on people's shadow thoughts...

_ And devils loosed are not so easy chained, are they? _

Now he knew why Constance had cried "I can't!" when told to lay down the knife. It was no more than truth. Having come this far, she no longer had any will of her own. The Doctor couldn't find it in him to wholly condemn her - not now, not when he'd very nearly fallen prey to the same malevolent forces. And she'd grown up in the shadow of the Stones, exposed to the malignant heritage since birth.

As Larry's breathing began to approach normal, the Doctor stepped forward again, taking care to firmly barricade his mind, and cut the ropes that bound him, helping him down. As the actor leant against him for support, the Doctor was disconcerted for a moment by the feeling of warmth and familiarity. And repulsed when he realised the main reason for it. He wondered if Larry had experienced a similar shift of feeling and hoped that if so he'd put it down to natural gratitude towards his rescuer.

He led them both from the Circles, knowing they'd find it easier to recover away from the unsettling influence of the Stones. He lowered Larry to the grass and the actor wound his arms around his head, shaking.

"All right?" the Doctor queried gently.

"My head - Jesus - feels like someone just ran a truck through it..." 

The Doctor bit his lip. "It'll pass."

"Kate - my wife - where -"

"She's quite safe," the Doctor reassured him. "Come on, I'll take you to her."

Jenny was already tending to Kate, who was showing signs of recovering consciousness. The Doctor left Larry with them and crossed over to the girls.

"What happened?" Tegan still felt shell-shocked. The Doctor smiled evasively. "We won."

"Yes, but what happened?" Tegan persisted. "My mind's gone foggy, I can't quite remember what -"

"I held our four minds in rapport, and then used them to pick up on the power that was being transmitted."

"We controlled it, not Constance Corby?" Nyssa frowned. "Surely we weren't strong enough for that..." She shuddered, remembering a little. "It wasn't just _her_ mind we were dealing with, was it?"

"No indeed," said the Doctor quietly. "Some very ancient powers lie here and she wasn't the first Corby to tune into them, not by a long chalk. What we faced back there was the result of several hundred years of misuse. But we held the trump card."

"We did?" queried Tegan blankly.

"Larry," said the Doctor. "The will to survive is the strongest impulse of all.  I focussed our thoughts on him, and his survival instinct did the rest."

"Psychic self defence," Nyssa said slowly. "But how did you know he'd be strong enough to -"

"I didn't. But there wasn't anything else left to try."

"He didn't believe in any of it!" Tegan was finding the Doctor's explanation hard to credit. "So how could he -"

"Instinct," the Doctor repeated. "It wasn't conscious at all, remember? Now, let's see how Jennie's patients are recovering."

Kate was fully conscious by now, a purpling bruise under her fair hair. She looked far from happy.

"Let's admire the view, the wretched woman says, and we'd no sooner got up here and she knocks me for six," she said as they neared. "And that's all I can remember. What has been going on?"

"She told me you'd had a fall," Larry said. "Then while I was seeing to you, she used ...something on me, knocked me out for the count."

"Chloroform," said Jennie. "I can smell it from here. She must've used just enough to get you where she wanted you."

"Why?" Kate demanded.

"She wanted to kill me ... how the hell should I know why? She was a crazy woman - who knows what was going on her mind?" He turned his head sharply at the Doctor's approach then looked away again, frowning, as if something he saw - felt - disturbed him.

"So what do you remember?" Jennie asked.

"Nothing that makes any sense." Tegan watched as Larry's eyes again switched to the Doctor as if something about him troubled him.

"The after-effects of the chloroform," Jennie said authoritatively. "You didn't miss much. When we got here she realised she couldn't get away with it and killed herself instead, that's all." She looked up at the Doctor, who nodded slightly. That tale would do to tell the authorities anyway. That Larry still had his doubts was obvious. He stared at the Doctor, opened his mouth, but his wife spoke first.

"If she was so crazy, how come you were having an affair with her?" she demanded accusingly.

"Oh come on! I slept with her a couple of times, that's all, It didn't mean - " 

"Well you obviously made a great impression on her, didn't you?" 

"It didn't mean anything."

"Then why do it?"

"She ...well, she was very determined."

"And you never were much good at resisting temptation, especially when it's prettily packaged."

The Doctor took advantage of Larry's distraction, drawing the girls around him and retreating quickly and carefully. Jenny stood up and slipped after them. The other two didn't even seem to register their departure.

"I think it best we go now," the Doctor said, forestalling Jennie's questions. "You'll see to things here?"

"Of course.  Thank you, Doctor.  I'm not sure what we did exactly or how we did it, but I'll tell my Aunt it's over. I know she'll rest easier for knowing that. Just one thing before you go - who are you?"

"Does it matter?" the Doctor returned, genuinely surprised.

Jennie hesitated, then shrugged. "Maybe not. Perhaps I should stop asking questions... I might not understand the answers. I think my Aunt might have some idea. She sees things others don't sometimes."

"Too right she does," Tegan shivered, the Mara suddenly coming to mind. "Doctor - what if Larry keeps asking questions?"

"I don't think he will," the Doctor said. "When I'm not around he'll be able to rationalise it out - I'm afraid my presence disturbs him. I had to force rapport with him, and I can still feel the affinity. He'll sense it too only he won't understand it. Because," he added, anticipating the questions, "I was able to use the power remaining to block the memory out. His mind is still raw, though, and the sooner I leave, the quicker it's likely to heal. Take care of your Aunt, Jennie.  Nyssa, Tegan, come on."

"Goodbye." Jennie watched their figures dwindle into the growing darkness then turned back towards Larry and Kate. Their quarrel - which had partially arisen out of shock in any case, Jennie guessed - looked to have been forgotten. She fervently hoped that the Doctor was right about the rest of it being likewise consigned to oblivion. The truth of it would take too much explaining...

 

Tegan's thoughts were running on their own tracks as they neared the TARDIS. "What exactly do you mean by 'rapport'?" she asked.

"Our minds were joined, attuned, only in Larry's case I had to force the merger," the Doctor said quickly, as if the subject was one he'd rather forget.

"I didn't know you were capable of doing that," Nyssa said. "Or was it the power from the Stones that made it possible?"

"Maybe." The Doctor paused on the TARDIS threshold, looking back at them both. "But I'm beginning to believe that there's no end to what we're capable of." He glanced back at the darkened silhouetted Stones, his expression sober. "Providing, of course, that we're willing to put our minds to it."

  


THE END


End file.
